JON DARCH FERCO SEATING UK safe standing trials are happening, but what does this mean for stadium operators and architects? Images: Ferco Seating
he recent announcement from
implementing a historic change which will
games and of switching easily to an all-seater
London that trials of safe standing
allow… safe standing.”
configuration for any midweek European
will be allowed in the Premier
So, what happened in between those two
match. So, they invented ‘Variositze’, variable
League and English Football
statements? And what do the impending trials
seats.
League from January 2022 means exciting
mean for ground operators and their advisors?
Key among the designers’ objectives for these
times ahead - and some challenges - for
As can be seen from Roy Hattersley’s
seats were clearly strength to withstand the
stadium operators and their architects. The
comments, there was immediate opposition to
robust treatment sometimes meted out to
success or otherwise of the trials will, to a
the standing ban. Indeed, the FA, the Football
stadium infrastructure in standing areas
large degree, depend on the design and layout
League and the then newly-formed Football
and maximum space for the fans when they
of the infrastructure installed for this newly-
Supporters Association had all spoken out
were being used for their primary purpose
permitted form of spectator accommodation.
against it the preceding months.
of providing standing accommodation. They
As a long-time campaigner for safe standing
Some years later, as the fans’ campaign built
therefore designed the seats to fold up flush
and, more recently, an agent for Ferco Seating,
up momentum, Germany’s ‘Variositze’ (rail
between slim but robust uprights, taking up
I look in this guest column at those design
seats) began to emerge as a potential option
just 50mm of the row depth. To prevent the
and layout issues - and, for instance, at how
for safe standing in England and Wales. As a
seats from causing an obstruction when not
a row of 28 seats could end up providing safe
German language graduate, I was asked by the
in use, and to eliminate the risk of spectator
standing space for just 23 fans.
organisers of the national campaign to speak
injury caused by fans standing on the seats
But, first, a step back in time. It’s
to German clubs about these new-fangled
and falling off, they also incorporated a lock
January 1990. Responding to the Thatcher
seats. Was there anything in their design that
into the design, so that the seats could be
Government’s announcement of a ban on
would make them unsuitable for use in the
secured upright and lowered only if unlocked
standing, the Shadow Home Secretary, Roy
UK?
by the ground operator ahead of a UEFA game.
Hattersley, asks: “Should not the government
The Germans had invented ‘rail seats’ in the
And, yes, there was no reason why these seats
be discussing with the football authorities the
late 1990s. UEFA had decreed that all its club
wouldn’t work in the UK.
provision of a seat for every supporter who
competition matches must henceforth be
So, rail seats became a focal point of my work
wants one and the creation of safe standing
played in all-seater stadia. With many German
for the safe standing campaign. Ferco built me
areas for those who do not?”
grounds having huge banks of terracing, the
a four-seat ‘roadshow’ unit and I travelled up
Now, 32 years later, the Sports Ground
member-controlled clubs were never going to
and down the motorways of Britain presenting
Safety Authority has written in its set of
deny their members the option to stand. So,
the rail seat concept to club executives, safety
criteria for participants in the trials: “From
they had to find a way of providing standing
experts, stadium architects, politicians, and
1 January 2022, the UK Government will be
accommodation at the weekend for domestic
supporters’ groups. The second ground I
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